Takeaways from Super Tuesday

CNN —

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump made their rematch all but official, with both notching huge Super Tuesday wins and Nikki Haley dropping out of the GOP presidential race.

More than a dozen states held primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, the biggest day of the nominating races so far as the 2024 presidential campaign accelerates and leaves the one-by-one march through early-voting states behind.

Both Biden and Trump saw familiar signs of potential general election weaknesses: progressives casting ballots for “uncommitted” rather than Biden, college-educated suburbanites choosing Haley over Trump.

But both also had much more to celebrate, as they moved closer toward officially clinching their parties’ nominations with their near-sweeps.

Here are takeaways from Super Tuesday:

Haley to exit the race

Haley announced Wednesday morning that she is exiting the Republican primary, leaving Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee.

Signs of her impending exit from the race abounded Tuesday night.

There were no briefings from aides on her path forward. No announcement of future ad buys or campaign memos laying out plans. And no election night event for supporters or a speech by Haley attempting to shape the narrative after the latest string of defeats.

Haley watched returns in her home state of South Carolina as the contests that likely represented her last hopes of a dramatic shakeup slipped by with one Trump win after another.

Her silence spoke volumes about the state of the GOP nominating battle.

Meanwhile, efforts to nudge Haley out of the race had ramped up, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham — a Trump ally — telling CNN’s Dana Bash he expected Haley to “be a team player” and